ntpd[2591]: ntp:frequency error -512 PPM exceeds tolerance 500 PPM

[Chetan R]

Following errors are seen on the switches

October 24, 2011, 11:34:13 AM, hkftshk14sansw01, 10.210.202.47, Message=<189>: 2011

Oct 24 11:34:12 GMT: ntpd[2591]: ntp:frequency error -512 PPM exceeds tolerance 500 PPM

October 24, 2011, 11:34:47 AM, hkftshk14sansw01, 10.210.202.47, Message=<189>: 2011

Oct 24 11:34:46 GMT: last message repeated 2 times

October 24, 2011, 11:35:52 AM, hkftshk14sansw01, 10.210.202.47, Message=<189>: 2011

Oct 24 11:35:51 GMT: last message repeated 2 times

October 24, 2011, 11:35:52 AM, hkftshk14sansw01, 10.210.202.47, Message=<189>: 2011

Oct 24 11:35:51 GMT: ntpd[2591]: ntp:frequency error -510 PPM exceeds tolerance 500 PPM

October 24, 2011, 11:36:25 AM, hkftshk14sansw01, 10.210.202.47, Message=<189>: 2011

Oct 24 11:36:24 GMT: ntpd[2591]: ntp:frequency error -505 PPM exceeds tolerance 500 PPM

October 24, 2011, 11:56:32 AM, hkftshk14sansw01, 10.210.202.47, Message=<189>: 2011

Oct 24 11:56:31 GMT: ntpd[2591]: ntp:time reset +0.442609 s

Did find the time is same on the ntp server and the switch, however found the timezone to be different ( On the server it is HKT & on the switch it is GMT). Is it possible that the  cause of the errors is due the Time Zone?

NTP server was configured almost 2 months ago, however the errors have appeared suddenly

Please advise

Thanks

Chetan

[Kris Vandecruys · Accepted solution]

Hello Chetan,

Please check if these messages are shown in the show logging log:

ntpd[30009]: ntp:time reset +3.141701 s

ntpd[30009]: ntp:time reset +3.196390 s

ntpd[30009]: ntp:kernel time sync enabled 0001

ntpd[30009]: ntp:time reset +3.193518 s

ntpd[30009]: ntp:time reset +3.161593 s

ntpd[30009]: ntp:time reset +3.269245 s

This means that you've hit bug CSCsv11236.  The freq of sysclk is 1333.330000 MHz which should be 1328.1275MHz. I'll save you the math but this works out to about 3.15 seconds per 15 minutes + ntp overhead.

The solution is simple:  Check you're running

  BIOS:      version 1.0.19

  kickstart: version 5.0(4)

  system:    version 5.0(4)

and powercycle the entire system.  This should reset the clock speed of the CPU to the correct one.  It might take a few days for NTP to stabilize again.

hth,

Kris

[santkumd528]

you dont need to have NTP server and NTP client in the same timezone; Most of the time there may be very limited NTP servers configured , but the same are used across clients with different TZ